Star Wars LEGION: AT-RT Tactics
Straight out of the Clone Wars, the AT-RT is the Rebels fast moving attack walker. Let’s talk about how to use it.
The AT-RT gives the Rebel Alliance some much needed mobile heavy firepower. Combining tough armor and flexible options it’s a major asset for any Rebel player. Let take a look at how to get the most out of it.
The Basics
The AT-RT is a simple yet effective Rebel walker. Each unit comes with one model and costs a basic 55 points. They are armored vehicles so get to shrug off non-critical hits. Aside from that, they have only a basic white defense die. Each walker has six hit points so combined with armor they can tank a lot of enemies. They do have a damage threshold of 4, so they can degrade as they take damage. A decent speed of two- combined with the Climbing Vehicle and Expert Clamber means they are more mobile than one might think and can get hard to reach places.
Offensively they seem a little weak at first glance. An offensive surge, converting to crits, improves the basic A-300 Blaster Rifle with its puny two white dice. In melee, the unit is far more viable with three red dice and impact 1. So what gives, is this supposed to be a melee unit? Well no. The answer comes in its upgrade bar, which along with having a comms slot has a hard-point upgrade slot. This allows the AT-RT to equip one of three different heavy weapons, which is where its real power comes in.
AT-RT Laser Cannon
The AT-RT Laser Cannon is the default from what I’ve seen and turns the unit into a long-range support sniper. At 35 points it gives the AT-RT a range 2-4 attack with one red and two black dice, and most importantly Impact 3. This makes the unit great at putting damage on enemy armor at long range. Like all the AT-RT hard point weapons it’s a fixed front weapon, and since it has a minimum range a clever enemy may try to sneak up on you. If this happens, you’ll have to pull out the A-300 and do what you can. This option is great for sitting back, aiming and blasting away at things like AT-STs.
AT-RT Rotary Blaster
At 30 points the Rotary Blaster gives your AT-RT the firepower of a whole squad of Rebel Troopers. With a range of 1-3 and five black dice, it’s pretty much exactly what you would get from a five-man trooper squad. While this is a great support option for taking down enemy infantry it doesn’t do anything your basic troops can’t do already. It’s a decent if kind of boring option.
AT-RT Flamethrower
The Flamethrower is without a doubt my favorite AT-RT option. At 25 points its the cheapest option and also potentially the most deadly. Though it’s only range 1 with two black dice, the spray special rule means it gets to roll two black dice for each enemy model in range and line of sight in the target unit. That’s potentially 12 black dice in the attack, ignoring cover due to the blast rule as well. That’s enough to wipe out whole enemy squads in one go and makes the unit very deadly. It’s particularly deadly against other Rebel armies which lack strong defense dice.
Comm Upgrades
Currently, AT-RTs have only two possible comm upgrade options:
Comms Jammer is an upgrade that allows you to get in and mess with enemy plans. It blocks the enemy from issuing orders to units within range 1 of you. While this isn’t a bad upgrade it is costly and also requires you to have your AT-RT’s in the middle of the enemy to get much use for it. Personally, I haven’t used them much, but I can see possible builds that make good use of the upgrade.
Long-Range Comlink is an upgrade much more up my alley. This upgrade allows your AT-RT’s to be given orders anywhere on the table. AT-RT’s a unit you’ll often have away from your main body, either sniping with a Laser Cannon or running up with a flamethrower, giving them Long Rang Com links can be a significant aid.
Basic AT-RT Tactics
The AT-RT is a pretty simple unit to use depending on the load out you give it and the role you want it to fill. Given a Laser Cannon for instance deployment is the most important aspect. Put the unit somewhere with good line of sight, and hopefully cover, and sit there aiming and shooting every turn. The heavy and accurate blasts will start having an effect. This is a fire and forget unit.
A Rotary Cannon armed AT-RT will fill a similar role to a unit of Rebel Troopers, mainly clearly out enemy infantry and taking objectives. This is unit I like to have moved in concert with a squad of Rebel Troopers. Combining the firepower of the two units can have great effects. Still, its not my favorite load-out.
My Optimal Build
My favorite way to field AT-RT’s is to give them a Flamethrower and a Long-Range Comlink. This comes out to 90 points and its a very useful unit. The key here is to be very aggressive with your AT-RT. Your first turn you will almost certainly want to double move towards enemy infantry, pushing into enemy lines. If you can get priority on turn two, and order the AT-RT first (long-range coms helps here), you can often rush in a hit an enemy infantry squad right away. Having hopefully done a lot of damage there you’ll be well placed to follow up.
This kind of tactic does a number of things for you. First off it can be deadly. The AT-RT with a Flamerthrower has one of the highest damage potentials in the game, left unchecked to fire at will the AT-RT will eat the other players infantry alive, leaving them unable to grab objectives. Of course the enemy knows this as well, so will prioritize targeting the AT-RT. This can be used to your advantage. The Flamethrower unit is so deadly the enemy has to deal with it quickly, thus allowing it to draw enemy fire and work as a distraction. While the enemy is on the back foot and targeting your AT-RT the rest of your army can act freely. Either you destroy the enemy unit by unit, or you force them to act in a predictable manner, its a win-win.
Final Thoughts
More than any other unit AT-RT’s are all about how you equip them. Pick the role you want them to fill and give the weapon for that job. As a mobile heavy weapon unit, they can do a lot of good for you. As a crazy suicide unit, they can win you games.
Let us know how you use AT-RTs, down in the comments!
